CBK: Money supply down 0.1% in Oct

The Central Bank of Kuwait

KUWAIT: Money supply (M2) plummeted by 0.1 percent to KD 35.6 billion last October, compared with the previous month, showed recent statistics of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK). The private sector’s deposits at local banks hiked by 0.6 percent to KD 31.1 billion in October, while deposits in foreign currencies fell by 9.1 percent to KD 2.8 billion, thus bringing the private sector’s total deposits to KD 34 billion, the CBK said in a statistical report.

Local banks’ claims on the CBK, involving CBK bonds and related Tawarruq, rose by 1.0 percent to KD 3.1 billion in October, while local banks’ assets dipped by 0.9 percent to KD 60 billion, it added. Local banks’ net foreign assets dwindled by 7.3 percent to KD 8.1 billion in October, as time deposits with the CBK jumped by 69.4 percent to KD 1.1 billion in the same month, according to the CBK’s recent statistics.

The financing of Kuwaiti imports (paid up) nosedived by 1.8 percent to KD 276.6 million in October, while the average US exchange rate against KD was 302.5 fils, it noted. The CBK’s total assets shot up by 11.4 percent to KD 9.2 billion in October, and net foreign assets went up by 11.6 percent to KD 8.8 billion, it added. – KUNA